Recipes / Sides
Mieliepoffers (sweetcorn fritters)
Small golden fritters of creamed sweetcorn, egg and flour, fried in a pan on the braai. Serve them savoury with chilli and coriander, or sweet with cinnamon sugar.
- Prep
- 10 min
- On the fire
- 20 min
- Serves
- 4 to 6 (about 20 fritters)
Ingredients
Batter
Savoury version (optional)
Sweet version (optional)
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Set the frying pan over a burner on medium, or on your grill's side burner, and keep the grill lid open.
- Gas heats a pan quickly, so let the oil and butter settle before the first spoonful, and turn the flame down if the fritters brown before they are cooked through.
On a skottel?
- Fritters suit a skottel well. Use a medium flame and fry in the shallow oil at the centre, a few at a time.
- Move cooked fritters up the cooler slope to keep warm while the next batch fries.
- Whisk the sweetcorn and eggs together in a bowl.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper and stir to a thick batter. Stir in the savoury or sweet extras, if using.
- Set a heavy frying pan on the grid over medium coals. Heat the oil and butter until the butter foams.
- Drop in heaped tablespoons of batter, leaving space between them.
- Fry for 2 minutes until bubbles appear on top and the edges set, then turn and fry for 1 to 2 minutes more until golden.
- Drain on paper towel and keep warm at the edge of the fire while you fry the rest, adding oil as needed.
Done when: both sides are golden brown and the fritters spring back when pressed in the middle.
Tips
- The batter should drop off the spoon in a slow blob. If it runs, add a spoonful more flour.
- Medium coals are right. Over hot coals the outside burns before the middle cooks.
- Serve the savoury fritters with chilli chutney or next to a curry.
Mieliepoffers are a farm kitchen favourite in South Africa, made from a tin of creamed sweetcorn and a few pantry staples. Cooks in the Afrikaans tradition often serve them sweet, while many Durban homes make them savoury with green chilli and dhania (coriander). A pan on the grid turns them into an easy braai side next to braaied mielies.
Source
Adapted from Delicious sweet corn fritters: A simple guide to a South African favourite at The Post and Sweet Corn Fritters at Uswatul Muslimah.